Not covering ACORN

The dearth -- and tardiness -- of coverage by the traditional media is explained in part by the fact that most reporters for establishment news organizations do not follow the conservative media. They tend to consider many of the more outlandish charges from the right to be plain loony -- which they often are.

And ACORN has long been an obsession of the right, with some of past criticism taking on racial overtones. So reporters, being used to tuning out charges against ACORN, were slow to realize that this was a time when the group’s opponents had the goods.

They did not have all the goods, though: An ACORN worker's claim to have killed her husband was, according to a San Bernardino County police report provided by the group, a joke -- which ACORN says demonstrates that the employee there was playing along with the outlandish visitors, not actually indulging them.

(This does not, however, explain the Baltimore and Washington ACORN offices' willingness to offer advice on criminality; indeed, the group fired them.)